“What could be a corny premise turns into an exhilarating, fun ride in Edelson’s adept hands. Her characters are smartly drawn, and readers will easily identify with Ruby, a strong yet insecure young artist on the verge of adulthood, who is still recovering from her tragic past . . . Fans of Twilight and modern fairy tales will fall in love with Ruby and root for her eventual romance.” —Blue Ink Review (Starred Review)
“Between Wild and Ruin is a stunning story of legends, romance, and destiny with themes of starting over, small towns, beauty, and community . . . Edelson perfectly breathes new life in mythology by honoring the oral tradition of a small community and the ruins that bring to life Ruby's destiny.” —Manhattan Book Review
“Highly recommended to mature teens through new adult and adult audiences, this is a story that lingers in the mind long after its final revelation.” —Midwest Book Review
“A great addition to young adult urban fantasy.” —Seattle Book Review
“Descriptions of the New Mexico landscape are rich and atmospheric, arousing the senses with references to the scent of smoke and juniper, the predatory roar of mountain lions, and the brilliant dazzle of stars in the desert sky . . . The writing conveys a sense of timelessness, making it easy to believe Ruby’s sense that the land is spirit-haunted and that Leo, the handsome young man she encounters near the ruins, is somehow connected to it all.” —Clarion Forward
“An intriguing historical tale and an over-the-top love-quadrangle romance.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The paranormal aspects of the tale are credible and richly steeped in traditional lore, and the plot is finely crafted . . . Between Wild and Ruin is most highly recommended.” —Reader’s Favorite (5-Star Review)
What was the single worst distraction that kept you from writing this book?
In a word, Covid. I’d written half of Wild Open Faces before the pandemic struck, but the second half, it was like pulling teeth. So much to be distracted by. Between politics and Coronavirus this last year, I’m genuinely impressed I finished Wild Open Faces at all.
Beyond your own work (of course), what is your all-time favorite book and why? And what is your favorite book outside of your genre? AND Has reading a book ever changed your life? Which one and why, if yes?
I’m going to wipe out a bunch of Q and A questions here with one long-winded answer. I’ve probably thought more about the book, The Plague (Le Pest), by Albert Camus more than any other book I’ve ever read. The Plague takes place in 1940’s Algeria in a town called Oran. It’s an extremely lyrical, incredibly stirring book about a plague that shuts the town down, cutting its citizens off from the world over many months during a strict quarantine. During that time, the the only real news people in the town receive comes from the local paper and the town’s own citizens. Moreover, the town is inundated with rats and death, and suffering from this complete denial on the government’s behalf that more serious actions are needed to address the epidemic. The book is coolly narrated by the town’s doctor, who tries to remain an ‘objective observer’ throughout the epidemic, so his emotions don’t complicate how he addresses his or the townsfolks’ suffering, much less how he treats them. Camus introduces multiple characters with multiple points of view in the Plague, all of whom shed light on both individual human suffering and the collective human condition. It really is a treatise on how we as humans tend to react to the worst conditions. (Obviously that’s a supper condensed summary).
Critics have basically called The Plague an existential thesis, and some claim it’s an allegorical description of the French resistance to Nazi to occupation during World War II. Themes including commitment, selfishness, heroism, cowardice, and generosity, not to mention "all kinds of profoundly humanist problems, such as love and goodness, happiness and mutual connection” are obvious throughout. The Plague also examines religion (or anti-religion), ideology, human nature, questions about meaning, and this idea that it’s easier to forget than change. To steal a quote from Wikipedia, “The novel stresses the powerlessness of the individual characters to affect their destinies, the very pith of absurdism.”
Though all of those things definitely contributed to the powerhouse affect the book had on me, it was really Camus’s uncanny way of getting into your head and the beautiful but removed way he wrote about human suffering that really got under my skin. The book brought home our human struggle and the realities of human nature in this way that stayed with me for months afterwards. The first time I read it in college it floored me, and I’ve gone back to it again and again over the years to pick out passages, and to reassure myself humans really are okay (or that they’re not always okay, but that it’s human nature to be shitty sometimes, and that’s okay too).
Overall, I think the book actually changed the way I think about humanity and what we’re capable of being. I admire Camus a lot and have read all his books multiple times, but The Plague, for some reason, continues to be like my own personal bible when it comes to thinking about how to live my life (sort of like, “What would Camus do?”). I’ve also turned to it a lot in this last year, finding snippets that feel salient given everything going on in the world. Which is cool, because . . . fun fact, though Camus wrote it in 1947, the novel was a bestseller this last year because of the Covid pandemic. And the makes sense, because sixty-four years later, it’s more on point than ever.
In your newest book, WILD OPEN FACES; can you tell my Book Nerd community a little about the novel?
Wild Open Faces is the sequel to Between Wild and Ruin. The story picks up a couple months after Between Wild and Ruin ends, right as Ruby is finishing up her senior year at Pecos High. Though questions about the ruin up the mountain, the Otherworld, and what it means to be True of Heart still haunt Ruby, her romance with Ezra has had some time to settle. Things in La Luna have finally quieted down a little and Ruby’s started to think more about college and maybe moving in with Ezra. Things look to be going in the right direction, but when two strangers move to town — Lee, a professor on the nearby archeological dig Ruby takes and internship at, and Mick, Angels’ father, who no one has seen or heard from for twenty years — Ruby’s life is completely uprooted. Then when strange occurrences start stirring things up in the pass again, and Ruby’s internship at the archeology dig starts to cause trouble with both Ezra and The Otherworld, Ruby finds herself at c of a mythological mystery.
Book two delves deeper into the Pecos folklore that Between Wild and Ruin introduced, and adds layers of Aztec and Southwestern mythology to the mix. It answers a lot of the questions that came up in Between Wild and Ruin but opens the door to a set of new ones that will carry through to the last book in the trilogy. Ruby also learns a lot more about Angel and his background in Wild Open Faces, as well as her connections to him. Overall, I’d say Wild Open Faces is a faster paced, more plot-driven book than Between Wild and Ruin, but all the things critics and readers alike loved about Between Wild and Ruin are definitely present in Wild Open Faces too, including romance, friendships, a painstakingly detailed, atmospheric setting, witty dialogue, paranormal mystery, and plot twist!
Which of your characters do you feel has grown the most since book one and in what way have they changed?
I’ll be honest, while Between Wild and Ruin overall has pretty stellar reviews, a few readers mentioned that Ruby, the book’s main character, could stand to grow up a little. Whether or not I agree, I did take that feedback to heart and really tried to pay attention to Ruby’s growth and integrity in this second installment. Ruby’s been through a lot, and she is only eighteen, so I think it’s fair to expect her to act like an eighteen-year-old, but I also wanted to see her grown into herself a little more and act in more consequential, less wishy-washy ways. In Between Wild and Ruin more things happened to her. In part two I wanted to see her take the reins more often, to be more in control and less reliant on other people. I also wanted to see her take more responsibility for herself and the relationships she has with the people she loves, despite the doubts her mother’s death instilled in her. A lot of things happen in Wild Open Faces that also kind of force Ruby to re-evaluate her place in the universe (literally).
Your Favorite Quotes/Scenes from WILD OPEN FACES
- 1. “Never apologize for being curious.” — Lee, a professor and Ruby’s boss at the Archeological dig, speaking to Ruby when she first starts working there.
- 2. “Some people live for fancy dinners and goopy poetry, but I’m the lucky girl who landed a guy who knows enough to console me with my favorite junk food.” – Ruby, ruminating about Ezra after he brings her a bag of Cheetos as a good luck present when she starts working at the dig.
- 3. “So, you’re what, digging up magic wands and witches? That’s just what we need around here, a brand-new set of ghost stories.” — Angel, after discovering the archeological dig may be the mythical Aztec city, Aztlan
- 4. “Remember when you had to do all the convincing? I think I liked it better when I was the insecure one in this relationship.” — Ezra, exasperated by Ruby’s insecurity.
- 5. “Angel sometimes talks tough, but he’s really more Rick Grimes meets Mayberry.” — Ruby, pontificating about Angel’s good-guy persona.
- 6. “All of a sudden, it’s plain as day. When Angel tells me how he feels, they’re his feelings. And when I rationalize them away, it’s like I’m a thief. Refusing to acknowledge his hurt—all it does is diminish it, really.” — Ruby, ruminating after learning something important about Angel.
- 7. “The weight of what I don’t know settles over me. It’s pervasive and scary, but in a way, it’s also my security blanket. Because the reality is, I’m not sure knowing the truth will be any easier.” — Ruby, after talking for the first time to Angel’s father, Mick.
- 8. “My head feels like it’s housing a huge ball of wet cotton. If thinking so hard about something so speculative is a headache in the making, Ezra questioning us is an imminent stroke.” — Ruby, after fighting with Ezra.
- 9. “People say the elms are interlopers, planted by Western European settlers who don’t belong, on land that never was theirs to begin with. Right now it’s too easy to relate. I am a trespasser. And yet, like them, I’m here now. Even if I wanted to, I’m rooted to La Luna, and there’s no turning back.” — Ruby, thinking about the hard road ahead while she sits in Angel’s car after he gives her the cold-shoulder.
- 10. “You don’t wear wounded wallflower well. Especially not after months of essentially telling me to stop complaining about fate and suck it up. Especially not when you were right.” — Ezra, giving Ruby a ‘pep-talk’ after she threatens to throw in the towel and give up on figuring out what it means to be True of Heart.
- 11. “The way people are acting, you’d think everyone just found out they may have an evil supernatural dad and a half-brother they made out with.” — Ruby, exasperated at an unexpected turn of events.
- 12. “I’m going to start you a freaking fan club online, Ruby. I’ll charge a dollar per perv and make a fortune.” — Marta, because she’s Marta.
- 13. “It’s natural to doubt, Ruby. Liars twist truths. They wouldn’t be good at what they do if their lies weren’t effective.” — Lee, during one of his many speeches.
- 14. “You know, if it wasn’t for your mother, you wouldn’t be you. And you wouldn’t be here. We wouldn’t be together.” — Ezra, trying to convince Ruby to see her relationship with her dead mother differently.
- 15. “When it comes to rain especially, the Southwest is like another dimension. It comes out of nowhere. Not to mention, it could be raining on one sidewalk and bright as day just across the street. Like the Ancient’s couldn’t all agree on the status quo and staked out sides.” — Ruby, after a typical Southwestern rainstorm.
Ruby Brooks — Eighteen-year-old junk food fan and artist, Ruby Brooks, was born in Los Angeles on Halloween. After her model mother’s questionable suicide, Ruby moved from Los Angeles to small town La Luna, New Mexico with her aunt Liddy, where she has to repeat senior year at Pecos High. Ruby doesn’t know who her father is. She’s sure her mother knew, but her mother always refused to talk about it.
Ruby never really got along with her mother, and because of it, is sensitive about both her mother’s death and appearances in general. She hates looking in the mirror and often ignores or discounts beautiful things, worried if she acknowledges appearances, it’ll mean she’s more like her mother than she’d like to admit — i.e. superficial.
Ruby also grapples with big questions, including wondering whether or not she’s shut her heart down preemptively before she can get close to anyone, to stop herself from feeling abandoned all over again after her mother’s death. An avid hiker, Ruby sometimes acts without thinking and can be a little pig-headed or short-sighted. But she means well and is a loyal, loving girlfriend, niece, and friend.
Favorite Color: Purple
Favorite Music Genre: Alternative
Favorite Clothing item: Hiking Boots
Biggest Fear: Coming off as superficial
Dream Job: Anthropologist or Artist
Hobbies: Painting
Best Qualities: Loving, thoughtful, and introspective
Worst Qualities: Sometime clueless and a little self-centered
Ezra Lucero — Twenty-year-old Ezra is both Jemez and Navajo (with some mix of Hispanic as well, like numerous New Mexicans), and grapples with the traditions and lore his grandfather passed down about his family’s Native American clan and background. Ezra’s father died when Ezra was a young teen. Ezra’s mother moved away from La Luna to the Jemez Pueblo after Ezra left for college. Ezra also grew up in La Luna and attended Pecos High with Angel, and on the surface at least, was La Luna’s resident popular, albeit conceited jock until an accident that initially left him disfigured.
After Ezra’s first year of college, Ezra moved back home and holed up in his house in the pass (not too far from Ruby’s new house), and rarely ventured into town. He also became La Luna’s pariah, a position aggravated by the fact that Ezra’s family had already been the source of town gossip for generations — gossip about how Ezra’s family are allegedly witches.
Ezra was always caustic, reactive, and conceited, but his accident brought out the worst in him, and most town folk find him unpleasant to be around. Before his face ‘healed,’ locals used to stare at him when he came into La Luna, which often set him off. In the second instalment, Wild Open Faces, Ezra has mellowed a little, but he still grapples with his feelings about appearances and his relationship to beauty. After returning to La Luna, Ezra also returned to his father’s carpentry business. When he’s not watching the ruin and guarding the mountain behind Ruby’s house, he enjoys restoring things and working with his hands.
Favorite Food: Mac and Cheese from a box and diner burgers
Favorite Color: Black and anything checkered
Favorite Music Genre: Country
Favorite Clothing Item: Straw Cowboy hat
Biggest Fear: Being alone
Dream Job: Astronomer or Architect
Hobbies: Reading
Best Qualities: Whip-smart, loyal, secretly wants to be better
Worst Qualities: Conceit, anger, insecurity
Angel Ruiz — Twenty-one-year old Angel was born in New Mexico and raised in La Luna. He attended Pecos High with Ezra, but never liked him. Historically, Angel and Ezra have not gotten along, though Wild Open Faces finds them forging an awkward friendship. After graduating from Pecos High, Angel joined La Luna’s Sherriff’s office (as deputy Sheriff), where his uncle Torrance is the town Sherriff. Angel is a genuinely nice guy, and is invested in the community and helping La Luna’s town folk. His father left him and his mother when he was a toddler, so his uncle Torrance helped raised him. Angel is very close to both Torrance and his mom, Viviane, who owns and runs a restaurant in nearby Santa Fe. Traditionally handsome, Angel played football in high school and is a hot commodity locally but is not at all conceited about it. He believes in true love and falls for Ruby after first meeting her, then grapples with their relationship once she ends up with Ezra. He’s determined to do right by Ruby regardless and wants to protect her, but also wants to move on with his life (and can’t figure out why it’s so hard to do so knowing Ruby isn’t in love with him).
Favorite Food: Tamales, Green Chile, and Huevos Rancheros
Favorite Color: Green
Favorite Music Genre: Pop
Favorite Clothing item: Slim-fit button-downs
Biggest Fear: None
Dream Job: Sherriff
Hobbies: Anything Sporty
Best Qualities: Genuinely nice, kind, fiercely loyal
Worst Qualities: Bossy, nosy, overly confident
Racine Ramirez — Eighteen-year-old Racine, Ruby’s best friend, has lived in La Luna all her life. Initially more of a side character in Between Wild and Ruin, Racine comes into focus more in Wild Open Faces as both Angel’s new love interest (if Ruby has her way) and Ruby’s confidant when it comes to Ezra’s secret and the Otherworld. Racine work in a gallery in Santa Fe in her spare time and is a cultural art buff and mama bear. She’s got a head for organization, never backs down, heads up the group of girls Ruby belongs to called, Las Gallinas, and is not afraid to speak her mind or put her foot down when it’s called for.
Favorite Food: Pizza or Salad
Favorite Color: Royal Blue
Favorite Music Genre: Pop
Favorite Clothing item: Dresses and a red satin headband
Biggest Fear: People she cares about fighting or not getting along
Dream Job: Museum Curator or Psychologist
Hobbies: Collecting Pueblo Pottery and Shopping
Best Qualities: Loving, fair, thoughtful, outspoken
Worst Qualities: Takes a backseat to avoid conflict sometimes
Lee T. Lipoca —A new superstar archeology professor at the University of New Mexico, Lee, originally from Mexico City, is a bit of a mystery. The only clear things about him are that he’s the youngest professor to ever head up a U of NM archeological dig, that people sometimes act strangely around him, and that he seems to be obsessed with Aztec culture.
Favorite Food: Too busy to eat
Favorite Color: Black
Favorite Music Genre: Classical
Favorite Clothing item: No time to think about fashion (though a black button up and blue jeans will do)
Biggest Fear: Losing
Dream Job: Ruler of the Universe
Hobbies: Digging up old things
Best Qualities: Confident, Charming
Worst Qualities: Bossy, Dismissive, Scheming
TEN RANDOM FACTS ABOUT WILD OPEN FACES
- 1. Some Northern New Mexican’s believe the Glorieta pass is actually a magical vortex or supernatural paradise — for real! When I started writing the Between Wild and Ruin series, I had no idea there were people (in Santa Fe especially) who felt that way, and I’d never heard the stories or rumors. Interestingly enough, I was drawn to the area before learning about its ‘supernatural’ background, and chose it for the trilogy’s setting because I always personally felt a sort of magic in the area whenever I hiked it.
- 2. I do a lot of research while I write, and over the last several years have discovered that a lot of what I’ve written in the trilogy isn’t that far off from some of the real encounters people have had in the past. Akin to what I just mentioned above. Sometimes, it really does make me wonder if, a) the pass is really a paranormal portal (and believe me I’m a skeptic), and, b) whether I’m psychic J
- 3. The Pecos-Aztec connection in the story worked out perfectly! Though I obviously take some creative license when I write (after all, it is fiction), I do like to be as accurate as possible when it comes to portraying cultures and history. In this case, though little is known about the Aztec migration for real, I almost felt like I’d stumbled on some archeological/anthropological secret or connection during my research. So . . . though the ties in the book between the two cultures are ‘made-up,’ it’s also not entirely far-fetched. And I’ve received some interesting comments about it from thoughtful eagle-eyed readers and scholars.
- 4. As I wrote most of the book through Covid, I found myself getting jealous at times when working on some of the more social scenes. In my head I was like, ‘what, they’re at a party? Or at a restaurant? Without masks? Sheesh.’
- 5. One of my favorite things about the story this time around is Angel and how much his character evolves. I always knew where he was going, but I like how he seemed to come alive in my head and demand I do more for him them make a him a good-looking, aww-shucks side character.
- 6. Holy Ghost Creek is a real place in the Glorieta Pass, but in actuality, it’s more like twenty mils away from Pecos up in the mountains.
- 7. I love making connections from one book to another and often plant ‘easter eggs’ from past stories into new ones. A coupe of things from the Wild and Ruin trilogy feature in my new book coming out next summer, True North. Including Holy Ghost Creek and Rojo, Angel’s mom’s restaurant in Santa Fe.
- 8. Every place in the book is either real, or based on a real places in Northern New Mexico. A lot of the places you’ll read about, you can definitely go visit (and it’s well worth it).
- 9. La Luna, the town Ruby spends a lot of her time in, is not a real place but a spot I picked in the Glorieta pass between the real towns of Pecos and Glorietta, which are about 10 miles from each other off the same highway. But after writing about La Luna for so long, I always find myself waiting for the sign announcing I’m about to enter La Luna when I’m in the area. It often takes me a moment before I remember, ‘oh, right, not a real place.’
- 10. Las Lunas on the other hand, is a real place, though I didn’t know that when I started writing the series. Las Lunas is a small city just south of Albuquerque, NM, which actually, I came to find out, has some pretty cool archeological based mythos of its own. If you’re ever out there, and can score a pass from the BLM, be sure to hike out to Decalogue Rock. It won’t disappoint.
Hostess at a restaurant called Pages on Ventura Blvd. in Los Angeles (which is no longer there, sigh). I waited on a lot of stars, which was both weird and fun. The most exciting thing about it though, was that the restaurant was highlighted in a scene in Brett Easton Ellis’ Less Than Zero. My 15-year-old self was mighty impressed with working somewhere that was featured so prominently in such an awesome book (or so I thought at the time).
What is the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning?
Usually, ‘Oh God, it’s morning already? Why can’t I just sleep in J’
What is your most memorable travel experience?
I’m lucky enough to have a lot of them . . . but more recently, I traveled to New Zealand and took an adventure tour through the Watimo cave system, famous for its glow worms. The guide asked my group of 5 people how adventurous we were, and we enthusiastically (but naively) answered “Very!” As a result, we ended up deep underground in a perpendicular lava tube that housed a waterfall we had to scale up, into a subterranean river flowing through another tube the width and height of a never-ending bathtub. For over an hour, we had to climb through holes in the rock in the dark, scaled up or jumped off underground waterfalls, and army crawled through a rushing underground river to a hole that finally took us back above ground. At one point I literally had a panic attack. The whole ‘extra’ part was apparently just a thing the guide sometimes threw in, in the offseason for ballsey adventurers. And it was honestly one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. In hindsight, think about all the cursing and hostility from some of our group as we army crawled through some of the darkest, tiniest caves, and crazy rivers makes me laugh. And the picture of me finally emerging from underground into the light is priceless. I’d never been so happy to see daylight, and yet exhilarated to had done something so scary and incredible!
- 1. Thoughtful
- 2. Compassionate
- 3. Sympathetic
- 4. Awesome listener
- 5. Never shies away from a good conversation
- 6. Loves to have fun
- 7. Can also be serious and grounded
- 8. Understands no one is perfect
- 9. Has realistic expectations about the world
- 10. But is still a dreamer.
What’s that saying? It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? True love, always.
What do you usually think about right before falling asleep?
I tell myself a lot of stories just before nodding off. In fact, that’s how the Between Wild and Ruin series started. If I’m not super anxious, in which case I’m probably mulling all the things I didn’t do that day, and still need to, that’s probably what I’m thinking about.
What's your most missed memory?
Hanging out with my Bobe and Zade (Yiddish for Grandpa and Grandma) in their old house in Minneapolis over the winter holidays. They were brilliant, loving, and a hoot to be with, and a lot of what I know and love now they definitely influenced.
When you looked in the mirror first thing this morning, what was the first thing you thought?
How much is Botox again? J
First Love?
When I was fifteen, I fell in love this tattooed, guitar playing, artistic, leather jacket wearing rockabilly boy who blasted the Sex Pistols in his mother’s white Cadillac whenever he picked me up for a date. I dated him for a few years between fifteen and eighteen and then on and off again into my twenties. I loved him so hard at the time it’s a little bit mystifying, and our breakups (and there were enough of them) would make epic stories. Talk about being a drama queen!
First Heartbreak?
See above,. I think the first time we broke up it was in front of a bunch of friends on the street in front of my house, and I literally threw myself at his feet and wrapped my arms around his ankles. He had to kind of shake me off him. Soooo mortifying. We broke up a lot of times over two years and the last time was pretty brutal (for me at least). Honestly, it’s part of the reason I’m glad I have two sons! Good news is, we also stayed friends for a long time afterwards. And I still think of him fondly now. Plus it gives me a lot of good fodder for my YA stories.
Surfaces are deceiving . . .
After falling for Ezra and discovering a gateway to the Otherworld, it’s a truism Ruby knows to take to heart. But La Luna finally feels like home, and with graduation just weeks away and a cushy internship on a nearby archeological dig in her pocket, it’s easy to downplay the strange new events taking place in the Glorieta Pass. Even when Angel’s deadbeat father reappears after twenty years, stirring up questions about Angel, the ruin, and Ruby’s mother.
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